ICELAND 2010 - Je ne sais quoi

This is one of those songs that I just don't know what to think about. When I first heard it I immediately liked it, and I started thinking that hey, this is really good. But as you listen to it more I think you'll agree that while it is good - it has a catchy beat and a really good chorus, and the singer has a good voice and stage presence - it also lacks originality and is pretty much a really standard song. It doesn't stand out, not really ... neither in a bad way or a good way.

This is the kind of song that makes the country that sends it think that they're going to do soo well with it, but then they end up doing badly, often not even qualifying for the final, and are left scratching their heads and wondering what went wrong. I think the results for this song are going to depend to a huge extent on the competition.

I like this song a lot, but I have to say that I think there isn't a chance in hell that they'll manage a repeat of last year's wonderful results (as you may recall, they came second in Moscow). It's good, but it isn't anything more than that, either. IMHO. :-)

This is Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir performing Je ne sais quoi, which she wrote and composed herself in collaboration with Örlygur Smári. They will be competing at Fornebu on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010.



Lyrics here.

Another ESC post that has to end on a sad note. Will it never end for the Icelanders?? First their economy collapses with all that that entails, everything goes to hell in a handbasket, then Icesave, and now Eyjafjallajökull erupts and quite probably Katla will, too ... and they get blamed for shutting down air traffic all over western Europe, poor bastards. It's like a soap opera that you can't stop watching, you just have to see what happens next. It's also a little suspicious though, the timing seems pretty odd. It kind of looks like an insurance scam, doesn't it ... first they get in heaps of money trouble, then they declare bankruptcy, and now they torch the place.

No, sorry, that isn't really funny when you really think about it. (And it isn't even my joke, I stole it from someone over at Dagbladet online.) I feel bad for the Icelanders, they don't deserve this. Here's hoping Katla doesn't erupt and really lands them in hot water, no pun intended. Fingers crossed.